The weekend before it began my van was packed so full of gear I had to buy a roof rack to accommodate more. Plus there were the four bikes hitched to the back.
I was headed to Burning Man for the fourth time, that annual pilgrimage in the parched...

Every day, we handpick our lives. News, TV, music and entertainment are all self-programmed. We select, subscribe, tailor, customize and favoritize everything. We like it this way.
So why not create our own hotel experience?
The notion that people...

The deadline to apply for the 2014 Festival of Arts is around the corner.
Artists interested in exhibiting their work at the juried fine art show from July 6 to Aug. 30 are requested to submit a CD with three digital images per media and a completed...

The Laguna Beach Water Polo Club girls' 14-and-under team won its division championship Sunday by winning four games at the sixth annual Evan Cousineau Memorial Cup.
It was the first tournament appearance of the 2013-14 season for Laguna which played...

If Mark McLaughlin needs a reminder of his time in the television production industry, he only needs to look a few feet to the entertainment-themed signs that decorate the walls of his new Laguna Beach store.
McLaughlin made the jump from film to candy when he opened the Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop's latest location, at 243 Broadway St. — a spot formerly occupied by a hair salon and day spa. The franchise business boasts more than 500 flavored sodas, candies and other goodies.
The 51-...

Laguna Beach shops between Bluebird Canyon Drive and Diamond Street have banded together to form the new business area dubbed the Pearl Street District — and they're planning a party.
The 35 businesses that are part of the new district formed the group as a way to promote their businesses and cut down on advertising costs.
"The businesses wanted to have a way to let people know about them and what they had to offer," Kym Sawtelle, who assists Josephine Brooks of Spa Josephine, wrote in an email....

A painting was reported stolen from an underground parking garage beneath the Laguna Gallery of Contemporary Art on South Coast Highway, Laguna Beach police confirmed Wednesday.
The piece titled "Elevate," a 14-by-6-foot canvas from Christiana Lewis, the gallery's art director and event coordinator, was stored in the garage for the past five months until it was reported stolen from 611 South Coast Hwy, at noon Jan. 28, police said.
Lewis said the painting is valued at $60,000.
"The painting was...

Personal Service Photos

A quick glance at Sin is Pretty's display window on South Coast Highway in Laguna Beach reveals a mannequin in a blue vintage dress.
On closer inspection, a passerby will notice that the mannequin is crying tears of faux blood — actually red paint — and that the color is continued on her outstretched palms.
Shop owner Denise Levesque said the mannequin is part of the vintage store's Christmastime display.
Bloody tears and Christmas?
The Laguna Beach native said the mannequin represents...

Somewhere along the way, a haircut became intimate.
It starts with the slow wash and the scalp massage. By the time you sit for the cut, you're relaxed and ready to confess anything.
And do you ever.
You talk about your partner, kids, mother and neighbors. You complain about work, weight and thinning hair.
You plead for something new — or at least something halfway cool.
Enter the hairstylist and someone like Greg Verbenec, the soft-spoken owner of V Salon in Laguna Beach.
Verbenec, 48,...

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!" the children chanted.
Then Mayor Toni Iseman pulled the switch on 11,500 bulbs that lighted up the 55-foot white fir tree, the centerpiece of the second Holiday Open House at Montage Laguna Beach.
An estimated 2,900 people were on hand Monday for the resort's welcome to the holidays, almost three times the number who attended the inaugural event last year.
It was a "Hearts-warming" affair, especially for the Laguna Beach Community Clinic....